Sunday, June 7, 2015

CHURCHILL COUNTY, NV - The Nevada Highway Patrol is reporting that no one was hurt after a small airplane made an emergency landing on the eastbound lanes of I-80 about 70 miles east of Reno on Saturday, June 6, 2015.The NHP says the airplane, reportedly a Cessna, made an emergency landing after experiencing engine trouble about 5 p.m. The plane landed at milepost 81 near the U.S. 95 turnoff.The NHP says the FAA will assist in the investigation. No vehicles were damaged and the highway has since reopened after the plane was moved to the shoulder.Source: http://www.kolotv.com

LOS ANGELES -- A jet heading from Dallas to Honolulu had to divert to Los Angeles, and land with an unusually heavy load of fuel, when three of the six onboard toilets malfunctioned Sunday.The plane landed with five hours of fuel in its wings, prompting Los Angeles city firefighters to meet the arriving jet with emergency fire apparatus. Boeing 767s do not have ways to dump extra fuel, pilots have said, and the extra weight from the jet fuel makes such a landing unusual.LAFD's battalion chief said the plane's flaps and brakes worked normally and the plane slowed properly on Runway 25 Left, the southernmost of the four parallel runways at LAX.There were 212 passengers and 12 crew members on American Airlines Flight 5, a scheduled nonstop from Dallas-Fort Worth to Honolulu.An American spokeswoman in Dallas told City News Service that maintenance crews at LAX would look into the issue, and that the flight was expected to resume after about an hour.Sources: http://www.ocregister.comhttp://www.latimes.com

Why Aero Contractors Airplane Almost Crashed After Losing AltitudeMore investigations have revealed how an air disaster was averted, when an AeroContractors Boeing 737-500 plane lost altitude 20 minutes into flight. The company has blamed the event on a ‘technical fault’.However, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has demanded a mandatory occurrence report from AeroContractors Airline, following the technical fault developed by one of its aircraft mid-air on Friday.The General Manager, Public Affairs of NCAA, Fan Ndubuoke, disclosed this on Saturday in a telephone interview in Lagos.The AeroContractors Airline flight AJ-181, which was carrying not fewer than 120 passengers from Lagos to Kaduna, had to be diverted to Abuja for emergency landing.The aircraft was said to have suddenly lost altitude, 20 minutes after it departed the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.A statement by the airline had confirmed, “There was depressurization in the aircraft cabin leading to the dropping of oxygen masks.”It added that Aero had a maintenance facility in Abuja hence the flight was diverted there to fix the problem.However, Mr. Ndubuoke said the airline had contacted the NCAA over the incident.“They have told us what happened but it will not stop us from doing our own investigation,” he said. “NCAA has demanded them to give us a report of what happened.”The official noted that one of its directors was on the said flight, adding that the whole report had been exaggerated.He said: “A lot of people said the engine caught fire, but there is no way that an engine will catch fire mid-air and everybody will be spared.“There was nothing like fire incident on the plane and Aero has issued a statement that the airline lost pressure and was diverted to land in Abuja.“After landing, they brought another aircraft to take the passengers to Kaduna but some of them were afraid to continue with the trip.”Mr. Ndubuoke emphasized that the aircraft involved in the incident would not fly until there was a complete investigation and re-certification by the NCAA.Tunji Oketumbi, spokesperson of the Accident Investigation Bureau, said the bureau would not react to the issue since no accident occurred.Mr. Oketumbi noted that since it was a technical fault, the NCAA was in a better position to ascertain what really happened and how such incidents could be averted.Original article can be found here: http://www.theparadigmng.com

A 27-year-old student pilot died while flying a microlight west of Akasia on Sunday morning.Pretoria North police spokesperson Lieutenant Rebecca Phatlhane said the accident occurred at 08:30.“The pilot a male, was flying alone when he crashed on plot 119, on the R513, just west of Akasia. He was declared dead on the scene.”She said the student’s flight instructor would notify the family of the accident.“The cause of the accident is not yet clear, but police are investigating,” said Phatlhane.Source: http://rekordnorth.co.za

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.On May 31, 2015, about 1720 Alaska daylight time, a wheel/ski equipped Cessna 185 airplane, N1694M, and tricycle gear equipped Cessna 172 airplane, N8525U, collided midair while landing at Talkeetna Airport, Talkeetna, Alaska. The Cessna 185 was registered to and operated by Talkeetna Air Taxi, Inc., Talkeetna, Alaska as a visual flight rules (VFR) on-demand commercial air tour, under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 135, when the accident occurred. The commercial pilot and three of the four passengers sustained no injuries, with the fourth passenger sustaining minor injuries. The Cessna 172 was registered to Artic's Air Academy, LLC and operated by the student pilot as a VFR cross-country flight under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91. The student pilot and sole occupant of the airplane sustained serious injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed in the area at the time of the accident. The Cessna 185 departed Talkeetna Airport about 1456 for a non-stop flight seeing tour around Denali National Park, and a VFR flight plan was on file. The Cessna 172 departed Palmer Airport, Palmer, Alaska, about 1625 destined for Talkeetna airport with no flight plan on file. After the collision, both airplanes remained joined together during and after impact with the ground. The debris field was about 460 feet long with the initial fragments located about 62 feet prior to the runway threshold. The main wreckage came to rest about five feet off of the left side of the runway. During a preliminary review of FAA Flight Service Station recordings of the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), 123.6, both airplanes can be heard transmitting position reports in relation to the airport traffic pattern.The closest weather reporting facility is Talkeetna Airport. At 1653, an aviation routine weather report (METAR) at Talkeetna, Alaska, reported in part: wind, 350 at 4 knots; visibility, 10 statute miles; sky condition, clear; temperature, 78 degrees F; dewpoint, 39 degrees F; altimeter 29.76 inHG.A detailed wreckage examination is pending.

FAA FSDO: FAA Anchorage FSDO-03ARTICS AIR ACADEMY LLC: http://registry.faa.gov/N8525U TALKEETNA AIR TAXI INC: http://registry.faa.gov/N1694MANCHORAGE -The National Transportation Safety Board says both of the aircraft which collided over the Talkeetna Airport last weekend, injuring two people, were transmitting position updates until the crash.A preliminary NTSB report on the midair crash, which took place at about 6 p.m. on May 31, said the student pilot and sole occupant of a Cessna 172 -- identified by Alaska State Troopers as 32-year-old Anchorage man Antonio Benavides -- was seriously injured in the collision. One of the four passengers on board a Talkeetna Air Taxi Cessna 185, flown by 27-year-old Cole Hagge of Eagle River, reported minor injuries after the crash.According to the NTSB, Benavides didn’t have a flight plan but left the Palmer Airport for Talkeetna at about 4:25 p.m. Hagge took off from the Talkeetna Airport just before 5 p.m., on a flight plan for a flightseeing trip over Denali National Park. Troopers said last week that the planes had collided at an altitude of roughly 100 feet over the runway.“After the collision, both airplanes remained joined together during and after impact with the ground,” NTSB officials wrote. “The debris field was about 460 feet long with the initial fragments located about 62 feet prior to the runway threshold. The main wreckage came to rest about five feet off of the left side of the runway.”Weather conditions reported by the Talkeetna Airport just before 5 p.m. that evening included clear skies with 10 miles of visibility, and winds from the north at 4 knots. Radio traffic included calls from Benavides and Hagge.“During a preliminary review of FAA Flight Service Station recordings of the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), 123.6, both airplanes can be heard transmitting position reports in relation to the airport traffic pattern,” NTSB officials wrote.Clint Johnson, the NTSB’s chief Alaska investigator, said Sunday that little additional information is available on the collision, pending further investigation.“They’ve got a couple of folks who actually saw it that they’re trying to track down, but that about sums it up,” Johnson said.Investigators have yet to examine the wreckage from the crash in greater detail.Original article can be found here: http://www.ktuu.com

WASHINGTON — Transportation safety has been generally improving across the board except in one area: general aviation.

“We’re troubled that the general aviation safety trend has been flat for few years,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart told WTOP. “When you break out the personal flying from the business flying, the business flying is improving which means the personal flying is getting worse which is troubling.”

Hart addressed the topic with attendees of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Homecoming Fly-in Saturday morning in Frederick.

“We are the accident investigators, so we are there when something goes wrong,” Hart explained. “That’s why we inform the process of improvement is because we see what actually went wrong as opposed to what might go wrong. We’ve seen it and been there up close and personal with what really did go wrong.”

The NTSB investigates about 1,500 general aviation accidents every year, whereas the agency can go years at a time without a commercial aviation accident. The biggest cause of death in general aviation crashes is from loss of control, generally some form of aerodynamic stall.

“It basically comes down to the familiarity of the pilot with the machine, the situation, and being ready for the unexpected,” noted Hart.

The NTSB chairman also said there are other factors that pilots need to consider to understand their risk when they takeoff.

“How current are you, how long has it been since you last flew, how good is your training, are you ready to go into that weather you are expecting to encounter, do you even know what the weather is you expect to encounter?”

Hart said that pilots need to know the weather conditions, whether that is thunderstorms rumbling through in the summer or ice in the winter, to help reduce their risk of a crash. He also recommended shoulder belts for all on board rather than lap belts to reduce the chance of death just in case something does go wrong.